The disputation will be digital and streamed directly using Zoom. You can download zoom or use your browser.
Participate at the disputation HERE
A digital version of the thesis can be ordered by e-mail to: k.h.paulsen@jus.uio.no
Information around the Trial lecture
Adjudication committee
- Professor Heidi Mork Lomell, University of Oslo (Head of committee)
- Professor Adam Crawford, University of Leeds (1. opponent)
- Assistant professor Yarin Eski, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2. opponent)
Chair of defence
Dean Ragnhild Hennum
Supervisors
- Professor Katja Franko
- Professor Helene Oppen Ingebrigtsen Gundhus
- Associate Professor Emer Jan Froestad
Summary
Security governance and policing global hubs
Airports and maritime ports can be thought of as global hubs and they are instrumental in facilitating an immense flow of people, goods, and capital every day. Being these vital crossroads, they may attract criminal exploitation and be exposed to risk, and considered as critical infrastructure. Therefore, airports and ports are enmeshed in a web of international and national security regulation. This dissertation examines the security governance and policing processes at Norwegian airports and maritime ports, and the overarching research question addressed is: How do agencies producing and delivering security and policing services in global hubs experience and perceive their collaborative relations and everyday practices when dealing with matters of security?
Employing a mixed-method design, the dissertation draws on empirically grounded research from case studies of Oslo airport, the port of Stavanger and the port of Kristiansand. By combining perspectives on collaboration and experiences of security practices, this study contributes with new empirical and conceptual insights into security governance from the Nordic context.
Collaboration and network structures – a matter of interests?
Since security issues at global hubs are complex and often transcend organizational boundaries, collaboration and exchanges of resources have become important means to effectively address risks and vulnerabilities. The dissertation emphasizes that the notion of public-private is crucial to the way agencies view themselves in comparison with others, and to how they seek to position themselves in collaborative efforts. The study shows how collaboration was at times characterized by a lack of recognition of others’ competence and expertise, particularly when differences across the public-private divide were present. This can lead to frustration and power struggles among the agencies. The exploration also revealed the importance of sectoral allegiance in which policing agencies that shared interests seemed to experience greater reciprocity in their collaborative efforts, and considered establishing trust to be easier. Thus, how collaboration is experienced and unfolds seem to be a question of interests.
Expecting the Exceptional in the Everyday
In addition to focusing on collaboration, the dissertation engages with debates on exceptionality and the everyday, and shows how agencies involved in policing and security experience and develop strategies to cope with exceptional threats in their everyday practice. The analysis underscores the importance of instrumental governing logics and techniques, with risk management and militarization used to render uncertainties manageable and tangible. Yet, the dissertation also shows the significance of what is characterized as the human dimension of security practices. Closely associated with this is the emergence of mechanisms of active resistance that provide excitement and alleviate boredom, in response to what is sometimes seen as an overemphasis on the importance of the tangible nature of security practices.
The impact of commercial logics: security as service
The dissertation also provides insight into how policing agencies are affected by, and seek to adapt to, demands for the efficiency and speed necessary for trade and commercial success at global hubs. The study shows how the police, for instance, experience the ever greater passenger flows dictated by commercial logic and adapt their practice to meet these demands. In this way, the dissertation indicates that policing agencies are guided by an understanding of security as service, in that agencies seek to satisfy their customers’ demands. At the same time, the dissertation reveals that security and trade logics are not always compatible, which can cause frustration.